The Verge Samples the ID.7 Sedan

Volkswagen has quite a few EVs around the world, but so far, only the ID.4 has made it across the shore to Bud Brown Volkswagen or any other dealer in the US. That is about to change. The long-awaited ID.Buzz that Europe has been enjoying and the US has been waiting for should arrive this summer. Also expected this year is the ID.7 luxury sedan. Purveyor of all things consumer and technological, The Verge website sampled a pre-production German-spec ID.7 on northern New York state winter streets, and this is what they had to say.

One Smooth Exterior

The ID.7 profile immediately recalls the outgoing Arteon sedan. EV packaging enables a five-inch longer wheelbase and a grilleless face, with just an intake below the bumper for some lesser cooling needs. Above the bumper is the ID.4-like LED light beam stretching over each headlight and across the entire width, interrupted by the LED-lit VW logo in the center. The design clearly spent plenty of time in the wind tunnel, yet it still offers a nice curving form to the lower body. As on the ID.4, a bright strip of trim highlights the unbroken curve of the roofline that sweeps back just short of the body’s rear. 

You Can Take it With You

If that roofline sounds like you’ll get a mail slot for a trunk opening, don’t despair, as the ID.7 sports a rear hatch that opens from just above the bumper to just above the steeply sloped rear window. That provides superb access to a sizable 18.7 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat, which The Verge noted is about 25% greater capacity than a Camry. A tug of a lever on each side inside the hatch drops the respective side of the 60/40 rear seatback, effectively tripling the cargo space to 56 cubic feet. When both are down, it is not quite the capacity of a similar-sized SUV, but it has impressive cargo capacity nonetheless.

Spacious Cabin

Volkswagen focuses on coddling the driver and passenger. To this end, VW has stored all the other inverters, heat pumps, coolers, and the high-voltage spaghetti connecting them up front, negating the frunk but opening up space in the cabin.  “And that layout is spacious,” The Verge reports.  A rear-legroom figure is not available yet, but the editor found room for even a tall adult to stretch out. Despite a battery below and a non-SUV altitude roof, rear passengers still have over 37.8 inches of headroom – a figure VW has provided. 

New Forms of Tech

Up front, there is a low-profile dash behind a center 15-inch landscape-format touchscreen. The operating system is new, and here is how The Verge describes it: “The ID.7 presents a bright, clean, customizable interface that you’ll probably just replace with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay anyway (both wireless). But when it comes to the basics of quickly accessing heating controls or changing car settings, it’s all quick and easy.”

The three-spoke steering wheel appears particularly clean. It has all the controls you expect, but they are all touch-sensitive on a smooth surface. A small digital driver information center is seen through the steering wheel, no higher than the horizontal HVAC vents. When you remove the two customary round gauges, the speedometer being digital and a tach being irrelevant, you can fit quite a bit of information in a small space. What isn’t shown below is up on the standard Head-up display, which expands to show other information in critical locations on the windshield, such as navigation next steps and safety warnings.

The Verge wasn’t able to sample the head-up navigation symbols as this German-spec model wasn’t filled with US mapping data. The ID.7 also shares the ID4’s LED along the lower windshield, conveying navigation and other information.

They got to sample the voice command system, which is more intelligent and comprehensive than most of us are used to. First of all, you can name it whatever you want. Then, you can inform it that your feet are cold, and it will automatically direct warm air to the lower cabin. Another trick is that the system can control the direction of the air vent. If you simply inform it that you are cold, and the system detects you are alone, it will point all the vents to you. The vents can also swivel around when first activated to get the cabin to a desired temperature quickly. 

Powerfully Relaxing

The model The Verge sampled had rear drive with 282 horsepower and 402 lb-ft of torque, which, being an EV, is always fully at hand. That would be an impressive torque figure in a gas sedan, but The Verge reminds us that this is a big sedan with a big 85 kWh battery. The push from the motor is more than adequate but not neck-snapping. 

They also report that the car’s nature doesn’t encourage that sort of thing anyway. This is a comfortable cruiser built for taking up to five passengers and a fair amount of stuff quietly down the road—or not so quietly if you indulge in the available Harman Kardon audio system, which was impressive enough for a tech head to call excellent.

There are no EPA range estimates yet, but 386 miles on the European WLTP test and a bit of math predicts about 320 miles for this rear-driver. Also not known is the price, but The Verge predicts a low-to-mid $50,000 price. That will be less than any other German rear-drive sedan you will find at this size. Within the EV realm, the ID.7 looks to be priced near the Tesla 3 while offering the size and comfort of the Tesla S. 

The ID.7 is expected to arrive later this year, and despite The Verge’s prediction that “once the ID.Buzz finally drops, that’s the only VW anyone’s going to be talking about,” we have our suspicions that this EV sedan is going to make a significant splash in the US. You can contact one of Bud Brown Volkswagen’s sales professionals to put you on a notification list of its expected arrival.